ABSTRACT
This part conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the key concepts discussed in the preceding chapters. The part examines the realm of the metaphor, namely the ‘social’ called to remedy the dysfunctions of an economic thinking that believes itself free and independent, and of the paradoxes ensuing from the weak coherence between the cooperative ideals and the means to realise them. The actual issue is not to free the individual, but to free ourselves of a harmful notion that encloses in the metaphor and the paradoxes of cooperatives. The imaginary categories of thought that all too often enunciate the cooperative ideals and principles, keep them in a situation of marginality with regard to mainstream economics. Though highly efficacious in the case of the industrial – and later on the neo-liberal – economy, the categories of imaginary completeness are inefficacious in the case of an alternative economy, as cooperatives.
